Poll watch: The view from California and the nation

Jun 24, 2009 11:39 AM

A robust 71% of California voters believe the U.S. health care system needs significant overhaul or restructuring, according to last week’s Field Poll of Californians. This sentiment was undoubtedly was shaped by the last two years of public debate in the Golden State as policymakers and stakeholders wrestled with state-based health care reform. Even more striking is Californians’ support for a public plan to compete with private insurance: 85 percent of Californians favor a public health insurance option.

As California goes, so goes the nation. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 85 percent of Americans said the "health care system needs to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt," and 72 percent are strongly behind a government-run insurance plan option. The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance, and most said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.

It’s not hard to see why health care reform has become a priority for Americans. A new survey from Thomson Reuters’ Center for Healthcare Improvement, found that Americans are struggling to pay for healthcare, and about one quarter had trouble paying for treatments or services in the last year. And things could get worse: 40 percent of households were planning to delay medical care in the coming three months, and about 15 percent were planning to cut routine visits to the doctor.

Representatives of Consumers Union, the State Health and Human Services Agency, the Pacific Business Group on Health, and Center for Democracy and Technology faced off on national health reform; the federal infusion of billions in stimulus dollars for health care; and the dire California budget problems at a panel discussion last Friday, June 19 at the Commonwealth Club of California. You can watch a video of the conversation starting Friday June 26.

—Betsy Imholz, Special Projects Director, Consumers Union

To find out what we're doing to help fix the system, see our Guide to Health-Care Reform.